Through a years-long self-improvement kick, Baton Rouge has developed several master plans, like Future EBR, the Green Light Plan, Plan BR II and others. Some of the most recent improvements, however, come from a source for which no one could have planned: young entrepreneurs looking to make a mark.

Young adults are beginning new businesses and vying for opportunities in a way the capital city hasn't experienced in years. This population is making noise, and that noise is beginning to change the way business gets done and culture gets explored.

Davis Rhorer, executive director of the Downtown Development District, made an announcement at the DDD's February meeting voicing his appreciation for the young entrepreneurs helping to revitalize downtown Baton Rouge.

"(Young adults) are embracing downtown Baton Rouge like I've never seen before," Rhorer said in an interview after that meeting. He cited a list of 23 businesses run by young entrepreneurs just in downtown alone.

POPULATION GROWING AND GROWINGThe population of young adults — namely those in the 25-34 age bracket — has outpaced the East Baton Rouge parish's growth for the first time in 30 years, and it's done it in a big way.

The United States Census breaks that group up into two parts: 25-29-year-olds and 30-34-year-olds. Between 1980 and 2000, both groups saw declines between 10 and 18 percent, despite a steady population increase parish-wide. The 2010 Census, however, shows a much different story.

Between 2000 and 2010, the Census reports a 27 percent increase in population size for 25-29-year-olds and a 5 percent increase for 30-34-year-olds. That's a total population increase of nearly 10,000 people in East Baton Rouge parish aged 25-34.

In the same time frame between 2000 and 2010, the number of 25-29-year-olds only increased by 14 percent statewide, and by 9 percent nationally.

View full sizeThis graph shows the growth in population of East Baton Rouge parish residents ages 25-34 between 1980 and 2010. Source: U.S. Census.graphic by Dan Swenson, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

Population changes happen for all kinds of reasons, and within the years between 2000 and 2010, Louisiana saw the impact of several hurricanes, which can shift populations. The U.S. underwent the difficulties of the 2008 recession, which undoubtedly changed some opportunities for young people looking to join the workforce for the first time.

Troy Blanchard, an associate professor of sociology and a demographer at LSU, studied the population numbers for 24-34 and 35-39 year olds for NOLA.com, and he agreed the proportion of 25-34 year olds has increased recently but, he said, the big group to watch for hasn't yet matured.

"The action is not in the 25-29 year olds, necessarily, it's the group coming behind them," Blanchard said.

The cohorts of residents currently aged 20-24 years old saw a 53 percent increase between 2000 and 2010.

"The cohort group that's really growing is kids … who haven't hit 25-29 yet," Blanchard said. "But to what extent can the parish attract these people to stay?"

Blanchard said many East Baton Rouge residents make a run for neighboring parishes, like Ascension and Livingston parishes, as they age and begin to raise a family.

"But if there was a lot of retention, that's where East Baton Rouge could stand to see some growth of young people," Blanchard said. "The question is how many of them do we keep?"

As the proportion and size of this age-group continues to grow, the responsibility to retain those young minds falls on the community, Blanchard said. For Rhorer, that means organizations like the DDD must continue to engage young minds and create a welcoming environment.

THE RESOURCES TO THRIVE"My age group doesn't have (this) kind of relationship (with downtown), just because when we were growing up, we didn't have a downtown to go to," Rhorer said of the blossoming relationship between young entrepreneurs and the increasing viability of downtown Baton Rouge. "What's happening now is we're about the place-making and creating those specials places. That's by design. So what I see happening here is all of a sudden … who's defining the new downtown? It's all these young entrepreneurs."

Erin Monroe Wesley, the chief operating officer and executive vice-president of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber, said the organization has created specific programs aimed at encouraging young business growth.

"We have established a foundation for them to stay in our region," Wesley said. "We've seen great results because of that effort. … You see that not only in Baton Rouge but in the whole capital region. On Third Street, in the entertainment district, we really see it."

Wesley said BRAC established the Regional Innovation Organization about three years ago, which was a program aimed at "(tapping) into the entrepreneur spirit … but that specifically seems to apply to younger people."

The Regional Innovation Organization is now morphing into its second phase, StepOne Ventures, which will switch focuses from encouraging innovation to funding those young start-ups, Wesley said.

"If you look at Baton Rouge as a whole, we have business incubators and (programs) that groom young entrepreneurs," Wesley said. "I think the entrepreneurship community is vibrant and there are a lot of resources for them to thrive."

"THE OPPORTUNITIES ARE ENDLESS"For Sarah Broome, those resources were key. The 26-year-old educator and Cincinnati native came to Baton Rouge with Teach For America in 2008, but it took a life-changing experience to push her to see an opportunity.

"During my third year, a student was killed during a neighborhood street fight. That's when I started Thrive," Broome said.

Thrive, founded in 2011, is a tuition-free charter boarding school. The school currently has 30 6th graders, but Broome plans to eventually include grades 6 through 12. The school, Broome said, wouldn't have been able to happen without so much community support.

"Baton Rouge especially does embrace young people who want to contribute something," Broome said. "I tell people all the time that we wouldn't have gotten the school off the ground if we hadn't had much support from the community."

Acknowledging her relatively short residency in Baton Rouge, Broome said she has still witnessed a change in the community, which helped her get the school off the ground.

"I do feel the community has changed, and there are more opportunities and more things to do," Broome said. "I think there is a lot of opportunity here. If you want it, you can create whatever path or career you want. The opportunities are endless."

Michael Tipton, 30, had a similar story to Broome's, opening a school in the South Bronx in New York before returning to his native city to take over as executive director of Baton Rouge's Teach for America corps. He moved back to take the job, but admits that "watching Hurricane Katrina" from his New York living room was also a motivator.

"I watched people wanting to improve Louisiana," Tipton said. He wanted to be a part of that.

As TFA's executive director, Tipton has gotten to watch many people cycle through Baton Rouge's educational system, but he says he's watched more people begin to settle here rather than move on to a different city.

"When I started in the spring of 2007, we had a grand total of 30 TFA alumni that called the Baton Rouge-area home," Tipton explained. "We are now heading into the spring of 2013 and we have just shy of 200."

Tipton attributes the growth of alumni-now-residents to the city's concurrent growth in opportunities for young adults.

"There's a recognition that this is a place where young people can be part of an exciting opportunity to create great things for kids in education and, more broadly, to be a part of creating an exciting community and work and stay in the long run," Tipton said. "That has led to other people thinking that is very doable for them. They could be the next leader of a nonprofit, or a larger business for that matter."

GETTING INVOLVED AT GROUND LEVELBaton Rouge might be attracting some young adults from outside the city, but other natives — like Tipton — are also returning home or just never leaving in the first place.

Urban designer Scott D'Agostino was born and raised in Baton Rouge, but left after he finished his first masters degree in landscape architecture at LSU.

"There wasn't the quality of life that I wanted," D'Agostino recalled. "I couldn't live anywhere other than a suburban neighborhood or a college kind of garden apartment."

D'Agostino eventually settled in Boston for some time, where he worked for an international design firm, working on projects like the buildings for the Beijing Olympics and one that let him work in Genoa, Italy, for a year.

"The reason I moved back to Baton Rouge was because I'd come back for Christmas and I saw the culture of change it had been through," D'Agostino said, stressing the importance of the "downtown revival" as a reason he came back. "If I couldn't live downtown, there's no way I would have moved back."

Like D'Agostino, Josh Ford, 24, is also from Baton Rouge — but he never left.

Instead, Ford got in the game early, starting his screen printing design business, Giraphic Prints, with a high school friend at 17 years old.

"I didn't want to work for anybody," Ford explained. "I saw other younger people starting their own businesses. Why not try this and go a different path than anyone else?"

It's been about seven years, and Ford's business now occupies a 5,000 sq. foot space on Balis Drive. In that time, Ford has watched the entrepreneurial environment change for the better, he said.

"People are much more into the idea of taking a risk and doing something on their own," Ford said.

Ford is wary, however, of the ability for the entrepreneurial "ecosystem" to survive without what he calls "big wins."

"We need a couple wins to create that ecosystem. It's here, but to take it to another level," Ford said. "Austin has Dell. Silicon Valley had Apple. … We need a couple. You could look at (Raising Cane's) to some degree. (Todd Graves) is a great example (of someone who) started a business outside the gates of LSU, built it from nothing himself and built it as a Baton Rouge-centric business that has now scaled nationally. "

D'Agostino and Ford may have taken different paths to their businesses in Baton Rouge, but they agreed on at least one thing: the ways to create change in Baton Rouge are wide open.

"You live in Boston and your opportunities to get involved with change — everybody's already done everything," D'Agostino explained. "Baton Rouge has opportunities to get involved at the ground level, to be a part of the change that's happening in Baton Rouge."

Ford echoes that sentiment.

"I always tell people (places like New York, Austin and San Francisco) are already cool. You're going to have much more of an impact on a place that could use you more than those places." Ford said. "You can can totally go work there and have a good time, but it's easy. Where's the challenge? Other people have already established it for you. … You're not the person that's going to be an impact player. You're going to have a much greater shot at doing that here, where things are ripe for change."